Fine, Let's Talk About AlphaGo
Ever since AlphaGo won a single game against Lee Sedol, my WeChat feed has been drowning in variations on “humanity is doomed.” After the second game, that chorus hit an unprecedented volume—by my rough estimate, north of 60%.
I don’t understand Go, and I wouldn’t presume to claim I understand artificial intelligence or deep learning, so I can’t comment on any individual stone either side played. AlphaGo was jaw-dropping, and it won cleanly and decisively, beyond any reproach—a genuinely joyous, congratulatory thing. But an opponent growing stronger is not the same as humanity being doomed.
In ancient times, giant beasts roamed the land, and humanity was doomed. Youchao and Suiren settled that.
In the days of Emperor Yao, the floods ran wild, and humanity was doomed. Gun and Yu—and Noah—settled that.
The Jewish people endured a thousand years of catastrophe. First came Pharaoh’s decree: “Every newborn boy you shall throw into the Nile.” Then came Nazi Germany’s genocide. This people looked finished—and yet after four Middle East wars, they stand tall among the nations.
Plague came, the Black Death raged, humanity was doomed—and yet, not over.
Two world wars nearly destroyed a thousand years of European civilization and wealth. Was Europe finished? Not over.
The greenhouse effect, global warming, a population explosion, vanishing resources—humanity doomed? There doesn’t seem to be much sign of it.
About twenty years ago, Deep Blue took down Kasparov. Humanity doomed?
…
Even on screen—an Earth under Matrix rule, humanity in the age of the Terminator—just when the doom seemed certain, there were always Neos and Connors, “mutants” of that ilk, holding the line.
For hundreds of thousands of years we have lived through far too many doomsday moments, facing enemies too powerful to fathom—from prehistoric behemoths to natural catastrophe—and every time we stubbornly pulled through.
Look at the five Bronze Saints of Saint Seiya: they face-plant a million times, and still—on the faith of “may the force be with you”—they drag themselves up again and again to take another round of punishment. And that tailed, goofy kid who has only just learned his name is “Kakarot”—after realizing his enemy outclasses him a hundredfold in raw power, he just scratches his head and says: Ooh, I’m excited. I’ll just have to give it my best shot.
They aren’t delegates to the National People’s Congress, but they stand for something buried deep in the human genome.
Somewhere in our genes there is an enzyme called optimism, which fills us with confidence in the future; and a protein called resilience, which makes us unafraid of failure.
See—didn’t Ke Jie, the great Go scum himself, say with total confidence: “Even if AlphaGo beats Lee Sedol, it can’t beat me”? And even if AlphaGo should topple Ke Jie—just as Deep Blue toppled Castro—there will still be a fresh voice in my feed: Fine then, big shot—how about a round of mahjong?
